How foolish is that service? "Up To 68 Miles: The USA’s Shortest Scheduled Jet Flights In August." Let us call the roll. Alaska Airlines, Petersburg to Wrangell, 31 miles, 26 minutes; Alaska Airlines, Juneau to Gustavus, 41 miles, 36 minutes; United Express, Mason City to Fort Dodge in Iowa, 97 miles, 38 minutes, triangular routing not bookable directly; American Eagle and United Express, Chicago O'Hare to Milwaukee, 67 miles, 73 minutes, multiple frequencies. There's also a service in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Iowa service doesn't exist to connect Mason City with Fort Dodge.
The 12 weekly flights are broken down in two. Operating five weekly is O'Hare-Mason City-Fort Dodge-O'Hare, which leaves Chicago at 07:33 and returns at 12:22. Flightradar24 shows that the shortest leg – which is not sold separately – typically takes between 17 and 23 minutes."Iowa once had a serious interurban network, much of which remains to handle freight.
Supplementing this is an afternoon service, which routes the opposite way: O'Hare-Fort Dodge-Mason City-O'Hare. Running daily, it departs Chicago at 15:27 and returns at 20:19. Aircraft typically cruise at about 7,000 feet during the intra-Iowa sector.
Not surprisingly, SkyWest, for United Express, is financially subsidized by the Essential Air Service (EAS) scheme to serve the two cities. This is because no airline would otherwise operate to/from Chicago as it would probably not be profitable.
Those Milwaukee flights out of Chicago are for connections from or for destinations beyond Chicago; unfortunately there's no convenient rail way to O'Hare from Milwaukee. On the other hand, a Chicagoan holding a ticket out of Milwaukee has the option of riding a Hiawatha from Glenview or Union Station and getting to the airport about eighty minutes after the Hiawatha leaves Chicago; but the wrangling over adding more frequencies on that line (the airport station is getting a second platform) go on and on.
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